Jewish Make-Believe with Rebecca Addelman

Meet Rebecca Addelman, a writer and comedian living in Los Angeles who currently writes for the animated sketch show “SuperNews!” on Current TV. She’s also the author of “Gershon” in Sex, Drugs & Gefilte Fish. (Read an except after the jump.) Here are her answers to our SDGF questionnaire.

What was your best Sex experience?

The deadline for submissions is still open.

What was you bestDrug experience?

Mushrooms. Fireworks. A guy named “Ferg.”

What was you best Gefilte Fishexperience?

I have been able to avoid gefilte fish my entire life. But for the sake of Jewish make-believe, I’ll say “While sitting shiva for my bubby on a menorah made of peyos.”

Addelman’s story “Gershon” is about exploring Israel with her friend’s middle-aged cousin —who was more interested in a different kind of sightseeing.

On this particular afternoon, Gershon took us to the Tzin Desert. Equipped with his own ATVs, we zoomed into the emptiness as the sun was just starting to dip. It was my first time encountering this kind of landscape, and I was moved by the beauty and ancientness. I felt sad, lonely and content all at the same time as the wind whipped up and off to nowhere, swallowed by the earth and the sky. It was already one of the best moments of my life before Gershon one-upped himself by leading our little party to the edge of a desert lagoon. He’d found a pool of pristine water in the cracked, hardened earth of the Holy Land. It was perfect—until we reached the water’s edge where Gershon and Erin stripped off their clothes — all of their clothes — and jumped in.

I was shocked—not so much by the nudity but by the fact that these two were related. Related!!? Picture one of your oldest relatives of the opposite sex—would you ever get naked with that person willingly? No, right? Because I’m pretty sure that’s a form of incest. A minor form, but still.

“Join us!” they called as they splashed around. “Rifka, you must come in the water. It’s part of the experience,” said Gershon, implying—by using my Hebrew name—that if I rejected the skinny dip, I rejected Israel.

I am looking to get one for my son as a present. I bought him one when he was younger, but you could only really see the moon through it. I guess I will need to go up market this time.. move ipod music |